Do You Like Cops?

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good, will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock

I’m revisiting the topic of an article about police I posted on August 5th. As I said then, any newly seceded state is going to have one hell of a time retraining its law enforcement personnel to serve the citizens of the new nation…rather than preying upon them. I predict that thousands of cops will quit being a cop rather than give up the nearly unchecked power they enjoy in today’s America. Of course, that would mean cops would have to get a real job in which they were not tax parasites…so I might be wrong in this prediction.

Back in 1994, I was looking for a new career. I took a series of personality tests that indicated that I was suited for a career as either a police officer or an insurance adjuster. The Cobb County (Georgia) Police Department was recruiting for new cops. I was 40 years old and in pretty good shape. So I applied. Out of about 500 people that applied, I kept qualifying through the process until I was one of 15 that got job offers. (Can you imagine a 40-year-old rookie?) But at that point, I had already gotten a job as an insurance adjuster that paid twice what a rookie cop made. So I didn’t accept the job as a cop.

Back then, I was a Conservative, pro-military, Reagan-loving, Dittohead, Liberal-hating, Christian Republican. Back then, I would have probably enjoyed the camaraderie and close-knit police community. I would have reveled in the “us versus them” philosophy of the police.

As you can tell, I’ve grown out of that mindset. Now, I’m an anarchistic, DC-hating, Diest Secessionist. And, I’ve come to have a distinct dislike for law enforcement personnel and most all they represent. They live off tax revenue. That makes them parasites living off the producing part of the population.

Consider the very term…”Law Enforcement.” Your faithful legislators have enacted laws that allow…even promote…the predatory nature of policing. And your municipality has the cops, guns and jails to enforce those laws, even if it causes your death. Cops are rewarded for aggressive law enforcement. Throughout history, regimes have used their police to enforce their tyrannical laws. Remember the story of Robin Hood? Who was the bad guy? The Sheriff of Nottingham, the willing toady of Prince John. Nothing has changed over time. The police force is an occupying military force in prettier uniforms, living among us rather than sleeping in barracks on a base.

Sure…cops recite an Oath of Service when they are sworn in as police officers. Sometimes that is an oath to support and defend the US Constitution, sometimes it is an oath for the State Constitution. But I contend that their oaths are hollow and mostly meaningless in light of how they perform their duties. Actions always speak louder than words. Members of the US military take an oath to protect and defend the US Constitution also. But look where their boots are.

The police culture places themselves as the elites, and the citizens as “civilians.” Elliot Ness called his group of FBI officers “The Untouchables,” and there is a good reason for that. There is a police mystique. They are sacrosanct…above the law…a breed apart. Look at how overblown and exaggerated a funeral is for a police officer who dies “in the line of duty.” Even military personnel coming back from “the sandbox” don’t get a funeral like a police funeral. Cops from all over the country will travel at great expense to attend a police funeral. Even the lowliest cop is laid to rest like a conquering hero or head of state.

The law enforcement community wants to have their cake and eat it too. They crave the respect of the “civilians,” while treating the populace like sheep to be shorn. They demand deference, but then descend upon the citizens to extract money at the end of a gun. A cop can manhandle you any way he chooses, all the way up to using deadly force. However, if you touch a police officer, you can be arrested and charged with assault. Cops can lie to us without penalty. But if you lie to a cop, you could go to jail. Cops can run elaborate “sting” operations to entice people into committing crimes, and that seems to be okay with most citizens.

Cops go to schools and try to convince little children that police are their friends. But by the time those kids are 16 and driving a car, they dread the very sight of a police cruiser in their rear-view mirror…much less flashing red or blue lights.

You may have all sorts of things you’d like to say to the cop that stops you in traffic. But most people also know that it is dangerous to “talk back” to a cop. So we sit in intimidated fear, cowering as we say “Sir” a lot.

Ever pulled up behind a car and seen stickers on the bumper for some Police Association, or the sticker of three horizontal stripes, black on top and bottom with a blue stripe in the middle?

The Thin Blue Line

You’ve just gotten close to someone trying to “suck up” to the cops that pull up behind them…hoping they’ll avoid a ticket. That person has made a donation to that Association…a kind of protection money…in the hopes that the next cop that stops him will notice the sticker and let him off with only a warning.

Police like to tell us and each other that society would cease to function without that “thin blue line” that protects us 24/7. But in my opinion, that is blather meant to justify their existence. Think about how much of your daily life occurs without a police presence. The normal day-to-day life you live could go on quite normally without you ever seeing a police officer. Normal commerce does not require the presence of cops. Your workplace likely does not require the presence of cops. Kids in school don’t need cops. Your entertainment choices don’t need cops.

The preventative influence of police presence is highly overrated. In most of the nation, cops are spread thin over large areas. How many times have you heard the story of a crime being committed in a location, and then the cops patrol more often in that neighborhood after the crime? Horse…barn door. Get it? They don’t protect you from crime unless they are on the scene when the crime begins to occur. Your safety is your own responsibility.

Predatory Policing

Your local police department, and the municipality that hires them, consider the citizens as prey. Police are looters with a badge. Red-light cameras exist for only one reason…easy money for the municipality. Studies over time have proven that intersections are no safer with red-light cameras handing out tickets. Radar traps garner huge fines for the municipality, and most tickets are given for less than ten miles per hour over the speed limit. Consider just how many police officers and police cars would actually be needed if cops were not out on the streets trying to catch people speeding or making improper turns. I would submit to you that uniformed officers spend very little of their on-duty time on any other activity other than traffic law enforcement. And why should they? Arresting a burglar, a robbery suspect or a murderer results in pure cost for the municipality in the form of jail and prosecution. But handing out traffic tickets is a money gravy train for the cops and the municipality.

Another form of predatory policing is the so-called War on Drugs. It should be called “The War on Certain Disapproved Recreational Drugs.” The laws now allow cops to confiscate the assets of MERE SUSPECTS in drug cases. If your assets are seized, it could cost you thousands of dollars to get them back…if you can. If the cops keep your asset, it will be sold for cash for their coffers. Beyond that, the failed attempt at drug prohibition is rife with police corruption at every level.

And DUI laws are another part of that War on Drugs. Consider DUI checkpoints, which are a total violation of the 4th and 5th Amendments against search and seizure without probable cause and self-incrimination. (That point is included for those of you who still believe that you have protections for your individual liberty under the US Constitution.) And DUI laws penalize a person who is caught with a substance inside their bodies while driving a motor vehicle. The very act of ingesting the substance is the trigger to the crime, even though the drunk person has committed no other traffic infraction, damaged no property nor caused an injury to another person. Drunk driving is a “victimless crime” simply because your municipality or state legislature has deemed it so.

Finally I offer you a video produced by a law school professor, in which he emphatically states “Don’t Talk To Cops.”

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3 Responses to Do You Like Cops?

I am glad to see that another has had the same transitions as I. I can not stand the left and their desire to socialize us. I thus moved to the right early on and was glad to see the “tea party”. But then I began to see that those on the right were just as interested in controling me and others as those on the left. I take pride is the fact that I was thrown out of Redstate blog. My sin. I only said, that we needed to not focus on abortion but instead try to unite and throw off the schackles of tyranny. The next thing I knew I could not access the site.

I am sick of people formulating laws, rules, regulations that are meant to control us only for the sake of control.

I just wonder if the process of change will occur and if it will be violent. I fear that it will be very bad.